JN Phillips begins windshield recycling

File this under recycling options I never considered.

This week, Massachusetts-based JN Phillips Auto Glass pledged to begin recycling every single one of the car windshields the company replaces. The company notes that about 15 million windshields – the equivalent of about 600 million pounds of material – are replaced each year with most winding up in landfills.

Windshields haven’t been recycled in the past in part because it was difficult to separate the glass and plastic that windshields are made of and the lack of places that could recycle the material.

But the company spent two years coming up with “Greenshield” which they say is the first large-scale effort to recycle and reduce the impact of vehicle windshields.

““Customers have been asking about windshield recycling for some time and we are very pleased to be able to offer a solution. It’s the right thing to do for the environment and our business,” said Bob Rosenfield, president of JN Phillips.

Now, when windshields are removed, they are sent to a central location and bulk-shipped to JN Phillips’ recycling partner for processing. The windshields are then pulverized and sent through a special process to separate the glass from the plastic material, polyvinyl butyral (PVB). Upon final processing, the PVB plastic can be used in various industrial adhesive applications. The processed glass material — often called “glass cullet” — is less costly than raw materials and has numerous applications, including fiberglass insulation and even concrete.

The company anticipates it will save approximately five million pounds of glass and plastic from landfills each year. JN Phillips will share the cost with insurance carriers because, according to a spokesman, the company feels it's the right thing to do. In those cases when the replacement is not an insurance claim, a small recycling fee of a few dollars will appear on the customer's bill.

While JN Phillips will recycle the windshields, they are also working with insurance companies to have them tell policy holders about windshield recycling. Already, Electric Insurance Company has pledged to let policyholders know about the option.